We all know where Rick Perry stands on abortion (and how hypocritical that stance has proven to be). He’s earned our scornful GIFs and been rejected from national office, in part due to how extreme and conservative his views are on issues like abortion and gay marriage. And while he’s spoken about the delight he feels in pissing off reproductive health advocates, I doubt he’s getting as much joy out of pissing off his latest abortion rights foe: his wife.

As seen in the video above, first lady Anita Perry was asked about abortion rights during an interview last weekend at the 2013 Texas Tribune Festival. Her words are willful and unambiguous. She refers to abortion as “a woman’s right” *twice* and states that while she personally may not approve, she doesn’t feel that it’s something that she or the state should be able to decide. If you think I’m somehow exaggerating or twisting her words just to recruit more players to TeamRJ, think again. There’s video and a transcript:

INTERVIEWER: Your view is: governor’s got it right, the administration has it right?

ANITA PERRY: Well, that’s really difficult for me Evan, because I see it as a woman’s right. If they want to do that, that is their decision. They have to live with that decision.

INTERVIEWER: Mrs. Perry I want to be sure that you didn’t just inadvertently make news. Are you saying that you believe that abortion is a woman’s right — to make that choice?

PERRY: It is not mine. It is not something that I would say for them.

INTERVIEWER: Do you believe that the state is attempting to say for them? And that if the governor and the administration had its way it would say for women that it is not their right?

PERRY: I think it goes back to the states and Texas has decided that no that is not what we want in the state.

INTERVIEWER: But your personal point of view is that it’s a person’s decision within the law to make that choice?

PERRY: Well I don’t really think that’s making news. I mean, I think that yeah, that could be a woman’s right. Just like it’s a man’s right if he wants to have some kind of procedure.

The emphasis is added, but the words are all Perry’s. In short, this is a grown ass woman expressing her grown ass opinion, which happens to be that abortion access is a woman’s right. Period.

You’d think this would be an open and shut case of a wife and her husband having different politics. It’s been known to happen, even to conservatives. In fact, this whole episode reminds me of a certain other First Lady who not only broke with her husband in acknowledging that sexism exists, but actually came out in favor of legal abortion and gay marriage — unfortunately only after her husband had completed his 8-year Presidency.

Alas, this is one situation in which George W. Bush has proven to be a more feminist politician than his Texas comrade. Rick Perry is, incredibly, not content to tell the women of Texas what to do with all their fancy opinions and attempts at claiming rights unless his wife is included in that group. So despite the fact that Ann Perry’s comments were straightforward, and that she repeated them several times, Perry is walking them back, saying that his wife “misspoke” and stuck “the wrong word in the wrong place”.

It’s actually fascinating to see such a public display of patriarchy at work on an interpersonal level. As Jessica said on Twitter yesterday, Rick Perry must think himself quite gentlemanly to “correct” his wife when she speaks out of turn. I guess when a politician has made his distrust and disrespect towards women a cornerstone of his policies, I shouldn’t be surprised when he dogs out his own wife. Still, it’s pretty exceptional that in 2013, a prominent politician can get away with putting words in his wife’s mouth when she has made it clear that she has an opinion to the contrary. Should we still need to check with our husbands before we vote or own property, too?

Amanda Marcotte thinks the comments are less accidental than they seem, but I’m not convinced. Perhaps I’m less cynical than she, but this seems like a clear case of one woman expressing an opinion that differs from her husband, and him doing everything in his power to stuff that cat back in the bag.

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman is Executive Director of Partnerships at Feministing, where she enjoys creating and curating content on gender, race, class, technology, and the media. Lori is also an advocacy and communications professional specializing in sexual and reproductive rights and health, and currently works in the Global Division of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. A graduate of Harvard University, she lives in Brooklyn.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

In an exclusive interview that appeared on The Rachel Maddow show on Monday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, feminist hero, and Tumblr sensation Ruth Bader Ginsburg talked to MSNBC’s Irin Carmon, sharing her thoughts on abortion, her push-up routine, and how she describes President in Obama in one word.

Here are some of the greatest moments from their discussion…

On unconscious bias:

…what’s still with us and harder to deal with is what I call unconscious bias. And my best example is the symphony orchestra. When I was growing up, one never saw a woman in the symphony orchestra, except perhaps playing the harp. People who should have known better like The New York Times critic, Howard ...

In an exclusive interview that appeared on The Rachel Maddow show on Monday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, feminist hero, and Tumblr sensation Ruth Bader Ginsburg talked to MSNBC’s Irin Carmon, sharing her thoughts on ...

Nearly 250 abortion clinics, two thirds of which reported frequent and regular anti-choice activity at their locations, responded to the survey, describing the forms of harassment their doctors and staff face for the moral crime of providing life-saving, legal medical care. It ranges from the new school — like cyberstalking — to the old-school “Wanted” posters that include doctors’ photos and personal information plastered around their neighborhoods.

The increase in “Wanted” posters is particularly scary since there was a pattern between these posters and the murders of abortion doctors ...

Colorado has a very effective program that provides IUDs to poor and uninsured women at no or low cost. The public health department estimates it has helped cut the teen unintended pregnancy rate by 40 percent and saved the state more than $20 million in Medicaid funding.

Republican state Senator Kevin Lundberg, however, thinks he knows more than all these public health officials with their “poor science.” He explained that he’s opposing an effort to renew the program because IUDs are abortifacients (they’re not) that can work by “stopping a small child from implanting” (um, what?) He went on: “Protecting life is a very big issue. In my mind, that’s what government is all about, and to protect the ...

Colorado has a very effective program that provides IUDs to poor and uninsured women at no or low cost. The public health department estimates it has helped cut the teen unintended pregnancy rate by 40 percent and ...